A federal panel recommends Ontario Power Generation be allowed to build an underground storage site deeper than Canada's tallest structure

A federal review panel has green-lighted a plan by Ontario’s power producer to bury nuclear waste deep below Southwestern Ontario in a shaft deeper than the CN Tower is tall.

The controversial proposal by Ontario Power Generation — opposed by environmentalists, and scores of Great Lakes communities on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border — is now in the hands of the federal Environment Department, after the review panel released its recommendation Wednesday.

Reaction to the news came swiftly. “We are deeply disappointed that the panel is recommending OPG’s plan be approved,” said Beverly Fernandez, spokesperson for Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, which represents about 150 communities opposed to the move. Fernandez made her statement after a brief review of the report.

“We certainly respect Beverly’s viewpoint. However, we wish she would give some relevance and credit to the science behind this,” said Jerry Keto, the executive in charge of nuclear decommissioning for OPG.

“We’re very pleased with the results. We’re very happy that we have the endorsement,” he added.

OPG’s proposal is to bury low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from Ontario’s three nuclear plants in the so-called deep geological repository (DGR), which would be sunk into ancient rock in the shadow of the world’s largest operating nuclear plant on the Bruce Peninsula near Kincardine.

In a statement Wednesday evening, OPG senior vice-president Laurie Swami said the utility is “pleased with the panel’s conclusion that the project will safely protect the environment.”

Fernandez was not mollified. “This is an intergenerational, non-partisan issue that affects millions of Canadians and Americans,” she continued. “It is a decision that will affect the Great Lakes for the next 100,000 years. The last place to bury and abandon radioactive nuclear waste is beside the largest supply of fresh water on the planet.”

The recommendation — essentially to give OPG a construction permit — comes after 14 years of study and consultation, including 300 hours of public hearings into the project by the review panel that also sifted through tens of thousands of pages of documents.

If built, the repository would extend 680 metres underground, in rock that’s 450 million years old.

Into the burial site would go low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste from the Bruce, Darlington and Pickering generation plants, but not spent nuclear fuel. The waste is now stored above ground.

Opponents, including many cities that passed resolutions against it, argued the project could menace the water supply in the Great Lakes basin, one of North America’s most densely populated regions with about 40 million people. The utility disputed that, calling the ancient rock the perfect site for waste burial.

“The next move is to evaluate the recommendations that are in the report,” Keto said.

Fernandez said her organization would have more to say on Thursday about the move.

OPG still requires more approvals to fill and operate the facility.

If construction began in mid-2018, it would take until 2025 to complete the project, OPG has said.​​